I have been contacted by Stephen's lawyer this morning and he points out that their answers to what they were doing at Stephen's home on the 16th July don't stack up and I would argue that they are demonstrably false.

Relieving Western Area Commander Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus said officers went to McIntyre's home to check he was living there, as his bail conditions stated.Stephen's lawyer says to this...

I also agree that there was no point or need for a Police visit as Stephen was not on a curfew condition of bail and was perfectly entitled to be away from his home at any time of the day or night. I have never known Police to make night time bail checks on clients where no curfew condition is in place.

...so this claim that they were just checking his bail conditions were a nonsense because Stephen had no curfew set. His only condition is that he lived at his address. The Police are pretending that such checking would be standard, they are doing that because they need to justify why they were at Stephen's house at 8.15pm on a Friday night.

Malthus said police could smell cannabis smoke within the address when the door was answered and chose to speak to him outside the address to "avoid causing him embarrassment".

Police chose not to pursue any charges over the cannabis smell, she said.

Really? Let's get this straight. On the 22nd of June, according to their own fact sheet from the arrest, the two officers could smell cannabis and conducted a search of the Green Cross premises based on that smell. Does anyone honestly believe that the Police after using that tactic at his workplace wouldn't then use it again at his home? There are 7 eyewitnesses, the 4 guitar students, Stephen's widow and his two teenage sons who can attest to the fact there was no marijuana being smoked.

Ask yourself, if the Police really did smell cannabis, wouldn't they invoke a search? They had him up on 350 grams plus $1400 odd dollars using that exact same tactic of 'I smell cannabis' at Green Cross on the 22nd June but they didn't on 16th July?

It's Tui ad-esk isn't it?

I suggest that the Police couldn't smell any cannabis at all because if they could, they would have searched and arrested him again.

"Police inquired as to who Mr McIntyre's lawyer was so that any communication that might be required should go to the correct counsel. This is a normal police activity."

This attempt to explain what they were doing at Stephen's home is the most demonstrably false part of their explanation because the Police knew who Stephen's lawyer was.

This from Stephen's lawyer...

That is absolute nonsense. Police well aware that I was acting for Stephen as my office had been involved in the case from the very day of Stephen's initial arrest. I had already represented Stephen at his first Court appearance and we had also had several subsequent communications with the Police officers dealing with the case, regarding receiving disclosure material and the such like.

So the Police are lying when they say they turned up at Stephen's house to find out who his lawyer was because his lawyer had been there from the 22nd of June, the day he was arrested. He appeared in Court for Stephen and spoke to the Police several times regarding the case.

So we have to believe that they were checking up on a bail condition that didn't have any conditions, that they smelled marijuana and didn't search his house, and that they just wanted to know who his lawyer was when his lawyer had already represented him and had communicated directly to them several times already?

I put to people that the answers by the Police are false and that they are trying to create a cover up to what their Police officers were really doing which was to bully and intimidate Stephen into pleading guilty and that this bullying ultimately had a terrible conclusion.

The answers given by the Police raise more questions and there needs to be an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation into the events surrounding Stephen's suicide.

Part 2 is an open letter to the Police Commissioner and head of the Auckland drug squad by Stephen's widow and Part 3 is a transcript written by Stephen approximately 20 minutes after the Police had threatened him on July 16th.

*Green Cross Auckland would like to clear up 3 points from the NZ Herald story.

1: It was not 'low-grade' marijuana.
2: Green Cross Auckland have nothing to do with Billy McKee and his GreenCross syndicate.
3: Stephen died 22nd July not 24th.

6 Comments:

Has Greg O'Connor said anything yet? I'm expecting maybe something like this: "If our officers had simply been allowed to taser him for no reason whatsoever then he would not have been in any position to commit suicide, and this whole tragedy could have been averted".NZers will all nod their heads in agreement.

Yep the cops knew that McIntyre was a soft target for their strongarm tactics. No wonder the NZ public perception of them is so low. The police are lying bastards. The cops recently strangled a guy to death in Hamilton, who I personally knew. They are bastards.

We are in a police state, same as the rst of the world, the police make up the rules then enforce them. The results of the police actions widen the poverty gap for many through their negative impact on crime and health. The top cops promote a them and us tactic and create criminals. Police are the enemy within protecting corporations.

In heartbreak and rage over the murder of Oscar Grant and the institutionalized hypocrisy of a system that kills black men by the dozen while excusing the killings as accidents, we present this poster. We hope it will appear on telephone polls alongside burning police stations all around the US and the world.--Color Version [PDF, 1.5 MB]

Black and White Version [PDF, 1.4 MB]

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THE POLICE

The ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who broke Víctor Jara’s hands and Steve Biko’s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Josef Stalin. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.

In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other.

But we know well enough who the killers are. and they wont fuck with us much longer.

In heartbreak and rage over the murder of Oscar Grant and the institutionalized hypocrisy of a system that kills black men by the dozen while excusing the killings as accidents, we present this poster. We hope it will appear on telephone polls alongside burning police stations all around the US and the world.--Color Version [PDF, 1.5 MB]

Black and White Version [PDF, 1.4 MB]

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THE POLICE

The ones who beat Rodney King, who gunned down Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo and Oscar Grant, who murdered Fred Hampton in his bed. The ones who broke Víctor Jara’s hands and Steve Biko’s skull, who disappeared dissidents from Argentina to Zaire, who served Josef Stalin. The ones who enforced Apartheid in South Africa and segregation in the United States. The ones who interrogated Black Panthers and Catholic Workers, who maintained records on 16 million people in East Germany, who track us through surveillance cameras and phone taps. The ones firing tear gas and rubber bullets whenever a demonstration gets out of hand, who back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family.

In every nation, in every age, you tell us you’re indispensable, that without you we’d all be killing each other. But we know well enough who the killers are. You won’t fuck with us much longer.